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So the other day I was finishing up my 9 day cleanse. Yes, I decided to cleanse at the biggest holiday time of the year. I am doing great though. Today I am starting my last two liquid cleanse days and I feel fab! I wanted to make a meal using what I had in the cupboard without going out for anything at all and I managed to come up with these delicious little treats. I am always surprised how good lentils taste. This was made with green lentils, I usually use red ones but the green turned out great!
Here it is:

1 cup of green or red lentils rinsedBoil in 2 cups of water and when they reach boiling, turn down to simmer for 15-20 mins until all the water is soaked up and the lentils begin to look dry.
Sautee a large chopped onion and 5-7 cloves of garlic in coconut oil – I love garlic so this may be too much for some people.
Add in 2 tsp of cumin seeds to the onions and some chopped cilantro – I had about 1/4 of cup on hand.
Flavor with salt and pepper
Once cooked, mix the lentils in into the onions and mash. I kept my onions chopped, rather than minced and I think it gave it a nice chewy, crunchy texture. You could also add brown rice or some sunflower seeds if you wanted. I didn’t.
Add in 1/2 cup or more ground oats and mash. Coat your hands with oat flour and form small patties.
The smaller the patties the easier they are to handle so don’t make them too big.
Cook until golden brown on each side either in the oven at 350 or on a skillet in coconut oil.
I served this with a homemade peanut sauce and a side salad. They were delicious, quick and easy to make. They are also a good source of protein and fiber. Makes 8-10 patties.

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This past Thanksgiving I wanted to make a healthy, gluten free vegan pie crust. It was a bit of a tall order but I figured it out. It was delicious and super easy, I didn’t even need a rolling pin.

1 1/2 cup ground oats – I ground regular oats in the vitamix until they were in powder form.

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup solid coconut oil kept in the fridge so it is hard

8 tablespoons ice water

Blend the salt and oats in the food processor, add the coconut oil, add a tablespoon at a time of ice water so that it forms a ball – you may not need all of the water. Pat into the pie plate. Bake as you would any pie crust. I made a pecan pie and put the filling into the pie as the recipe called for.

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Before I left home, my mother gave me a signed copy (signed by her) of The Purity All Purpose Flour Cook Book. I used to love to bake and did so regularly. When I was in university and broke, I would spend my evenings either at the gym or baking. Thank goodness one balanced out the other.I recently resurrected this book when I wanted to make a morning bread on a drizzly fall morning. I used only what I had in the cupboard and adapted it, which I always find fun. Here is the recipe. Use all organic ingredients whenever possible. OR stands for Original Recipe.

Preheat Oven to 350 F

2 cups of oats – I ground these to a flour in the vitamix – original recipe (OR )= flour
3 large pitted dates – OR = 1/2 cup of sugar
3 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Stir all of this together

Add in 1/2 cup of finely chopped nuts. My first choice would have been walnuts but I only had almonds and they were a nice addition.

1 TBSP of ground flax – mixed with 3 TBSP of water =OR 1 egg
3/4 cup of juice – my mom had given me some homemade crabapple juice – she said it had no sugar but it tasted sweet so use something with sweetness if you only put in 3 dates or increase the dates and use something else like almond milk. OR = milk
1/4 cup melted coconut oil = OR vegetable oil or shortening
3 bananas = OR 1.5 cups mashed – I am guessing that 3 is close to 1.5 cups
Mix the above together, then combine with the dry ingredients. Put in a greased pan, I used coconut oil spray. Could also use muffin tins.

Bake for 60-70 mins or until toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
I also added 5 chopped unsulphured apricots on top and I think next time I would blend them in.
This recipe may be easily modified to be banana and blueberry or strawberry and rhubarb or apple and cinnamon, you just need to adjust the moisture to ensure that the batter isn’t too thick or too runny.
Last note: I made this the evening before and asked my boyfriend who gets up 2-3 hours earlier than me to pop it into the oven an hour and a half before I woke. It was awesome waking up to fresh baked bread and felt very decadent to have it served in bed with tea!

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The other night in the Phoenix airport, my girlfriend Sue and I went to Chelsea’s kitchen for a quick bite before I caught my plane. The Phoenix airport by the way has some great restaurants, better than any of the other North American airports I have been in recently. Sue had a kale salad that was so yummy. I tweaked the recipe from the restaurant as I didn’t have all the ingredients, one being champagne vinegar and I concocted this delicious salad:

Kale, de-stemmed and cut into ribbons.
In their version they have sliced grapes, instead I subbed the apple and cranberries.
Half an apple chopped – if I had a whole apple I would have used it.
2-4 TBSP of dried fruit – I had cranberries on hand
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese – for those who are dairy free, use nutritional yeast instead.
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/4 cup of sunflower seeds

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With all the guests I have been having, I ran out of my standby Isalean and Isalean Pro shakes for breakfast. I am
patiently waiting for my delivery tomorrow, so this morning I decided to make muffins. They were quick, easy and tasty.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a food processor mix the dates first, then add the bananas and almond milk, once mixed add the coconut oil, maple syrup & vanilla. In a bowl, mix the ground flax and water, stir and then add to the wet mixture. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Mix together and add in the pecans and persimmons.

Spray the muffin tins with coconut oil (I use the one from Trader Joe’s). Put a few spoonfuls of mixture into each one and bake at 375 (I use a convection oven, maybe 400 for a regular oven) for 15 mins. Test with a toothpick to ensure they are baked at this point. This really is like baked oatmeal so if it isn’t baked all the way through, it won’t be a problem.
If I had apples on hand, I would have chopped some apples and added cinnamon, so that there was more fruit and less batter – I may have been able to reduce the maple syrup with the added fruit.